madmen

a fantastic period television show, madmen. you feel like a fly on the wall during an era that is so philosophically and culturally different from the reality i know.
you can make your own character here/

to facebook or not to facebook

the dilemma of joining facebook or continuing to refrain from the social networking vortex has been a barrier that i have continued to follow the opt-out category. largely, the decision to maintain the opt-out status has been congruent with some of my hesitations for not wanting to opt-in--lack of free time.

yes, yes, poor excuse, alas a reality. i continue to be intrigued by the virtual-realm social diorama, however.

drips of google juice on the subject of social psychologists reaction to online social portals tantalized my curiosities with intriguing reports of the cogitative effects of facebook vs. twitter.

the other reasons i echo in my head of why i refrain from diving into the seeming abyss of f.b. disturb me for their neo-luddite lilts. in someway to spite this, i believe it is inevitable that i make the migration in the near future--once i carve out the time.

36,000 degrees fahrenheit

nearly 4,000 light years away, the butterfly nebula.

lakeside

a joyous time at lakeside amusement park last weekend. this entertainment venue has been operating for over a century and once passing through the gates was like a throwback in time. a wonderful experience.

ethiopian

in my humble opinion, ethiopian is one of the most delicious foods in all the land.kick it up with the spice, mushy comfort food with simple ingredients, and rolls of injera to tang the taste buds. mmmmm, mmmmm, good.

igoogle

the nexus of information, google, has a number of new gadgets that you can include on your personal igoogle homepage.

the features include a number of social networking widgets that may or may not have strong purpose, but interesting nonetheless.

phish at red rocks

live streaming.

super hike

dave, jen, a, & i hiked mt. grays and mt. torreys.

 

we set foot on the trail at about 8:30am. the trailhead sits at right around 11,000 ft above sea level. meandering through a set of trees, right at the peak of treeline, then fields of shrubs, alpine flowers, babbling mountain streams, and up up up. around 13,000 feet life begins to peter out and the landscape turns to boulders and shards of different rocks.

the air becomes so thin and the steep climb warrents taking a breather about once every 10 minutes of climbing. the pit stops allowed for absorbing the breathtaking views. at about noon-thirty, we reached the summit of grays and soaked it in, munching on peanut butter and banana sandwiches before heading down the valley and starting up to peak torreys.

it took about another hour to get to the top of the second 14er of the day. torreys has a fantastic view as well. then comes the hike back down.

where the traverse up was a muscle and lung challenge, the walk back down is a bit of a controlled fall and you can feel it most in your joints.

the landscape gently erupts in a reverse order from which it had disappeared just a few hours before. tiny, ground-hugging mosses and small flowers get larger the further you go down. it as if they grow before your eyes and the groves get thicker and thicker, until they become fields of beauty amongst the rocks, then the streams got wider and the shrubs stood taller. into the thicket of trees and back to the trailhead, arriving back at about 4:30pm.

exhilarating, satisfying, joy.